Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Doubts about Revelations of God

Correction required for better understanding: Nowhere Quran says that Allah has sent 3 books before Quran.Quran talks about torah (Quran 5:68), zabur (Quran 4:163), injeel (Quran 5:68), sohfa e ibraheem (Quran 87:19), zubrul awaaleen (Quran 26:196) etc. Just like there were many messengers of God, similarly there were many revelations of God. Just like its not feasible for Quran to mention about each and every messenger - similarly its not feasible and logical to mention each and every revelation name (previous scritpture) in Quran.

Revelation / book is given to Prophets of God. God says that for every community (ummat) prophet was sent.

"...And there never was a nation but a warner had passed among them." Quran 35:24"You are only a warner, and to every people there is a guide".Quran 13:7

So different communities had got revelations from the same God.Since God is not region-bound and culture-bound (unlikely to avtaarvaad or reincarnation of God concept of hinduism)- so his message is for whole mankind. Quran is the last revelation.

Also-Quran gives an important principle: That a believer should not make distinction between messengers of GOD; a believer should not make distinction between revelations of GOD.Refer to Quran 2:136; 2:285; 3:84; 4:152

In fact - Quran tells that - though people have done forgery in the name of God's word (Quran 2:79) - yet Quran not for once tells us to throw those books in dustbin. On the other side Quran - time and again - tells us to believe in THOSE portion of book which were revealed by God. This is great wisdom and unique universalism which only islam offers. Detail of this is beyond the scope of discussion.

All messengers were given the one and the same religion - islam. So all revelations spoke about the same truth of God. There are numerous ayah of Quran which speaks about previous prophets / revelations also teaching same fundamentals of islam. Imaan, Salah, fasting, zakat etc were obligatory through all revelations. All messenegsr and revelations taught islam only.

"Verily, We have sent to every nation a messenger saying: 'Worship Allah and avoid false objects of worship'". Quran 16:36

"He (Allah) has ordained for you the same religion which He ordained for Nuh (Noah), and that which We have revealed to you (O Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم), and that which We ordained for Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses) and 'Îsa (Jesus) saying you should establish religion , and make no divisions in it. " Quran 42:13

What does complete / incomplete knowledge has to do with one revelation or several revelations of God?Its like you are telling to a Physics professor - "Professor! Your knowledge is incomplete because you didnt teach one and the same book of Physics to students of internediate, student B.Sc, students of M.Sc, students of Ph.D". See how absurd and meaningless is your allegation against professor. Professor will teach different class with different books because of their need and level of understanding.However, if professor teaches students of intermediate that sound can travel in vaccum and then he teaches to M.Sc students that sound can NOT travel in vaccum then you can object that he is giving contradictory teachings. Read carefully next portion of this discussion.

C. //Why so many revelations? //In the case of revelations of God, little bit of common sense gives clear understanding. Human being is continuously undergoing intellectual evolution.Communication system, mode of transportation, inventions has changed drastically in past thousand year. Previously - people were not as easily connected as today in terms of communication, transportation and preservation of a text. It was not possible to have one particular book from God to be available to whole makind, there was no paper, no printing machine, no telephone, no train, aeroplane. People were "discovering" other parts of word until a few centuries back. " Columbus (?) discovered America, vacodigama (?)discovered india, .." we read all these in modern history - don't we? So, before Quran there was no possibility of having one common message of God in the form of a book to be available to all people of the world. Most important there was no paper or printing press for easier writting and easier preservation. Thats is why earlier messages of God were for a particular era and particular people.

D. //Why only Quran preserved?//After creation; Almighty God manages this universe through MEANS (asbaab in urdu and kaaran in sanskrit). Things happen here as per the law of God. God makes clear that his laws never change.

"So no change will you find in Allah's Sunnah (way of dealing), and no turning off will you find in Allah's Sunnah (way of dealing)." Quran 35:43

When God does something then it happens through MEANS. Man may or may not have 100% understanding of all means every-time.So when God says that he will preserve Quran then it does not mean that God will come down to earth and memorize or keep a copy of original Quran.Rather, as per laws of God - those MEANS will come into existence through which man will be able to preserve the Quran.With the invention of paper it was possible for people to easily preserve the text. Printing press added to this revolution. Prior to this; things were written in parchment, bone, bamboo etc around the world.So God - in his divine knowledge knew that revelations prior to Quran could not be preserved to full extent. It was part of God's knowledge that Quran would be preserved in its original form because those preserving MEANS would be invented.

I hope several of your misunderstanding would have got cleared with above ealborations.Your objection is that if God already knew that people will change his message then why revealed in the first place? Its like saying:If God already knew that people will become athiest then why did he revealed his message about existense of God?If God already knew that some people will kill / murder then why did he create human being?If God already knew that some people will be rapist then why did he create such people?.....hundreds of such absurd statements can be added.

God has created human being with FREE WILL. God has shown the path, distinguished right from wrong and then left it upto human being to choose what they want. One is free to accept / reject message of God; God has also told the result of such actions. So if someone does forgery in the message of God then he is to be blamed and not God.

"And say: "The truth is from your Lord." Then whosoever wills, let him believe; and whosoever wills, let him disbelieve...." Quran 18:29

When God says that something will happen then its a challenge also for mankind to prove the contrary. And saying of God will come true THROUGH the MEANS. Previous scriptures like bible etc are not in their 100% pure form - there was no preserving mechanism that time. When God has promised to preserve Quran then it does not mean that God is demeaning presevious revelations. Remember - Its the command of GOD only to not differentiate revelations of God. By saying that "we will preserve it" God is saying that those mesans will be invented such that Quran will remain un corrupted.

Let me Quote William muir - one of the citic of islam - ""There is probably no other book in the world which has remained twelve centuries (now fourteen) with so pure a text". (Sir Williams Muir, Life of Mohamet, Vol.I. Introduction)Every year thousands of people - round the globe are accepting the divine and uncorrupt nature of Quran and coming to religion of God.

I dont know where you read in Quran that previous revelations were baatil or they need to be thrown away. Please remember very important points:1. Quran claims that people did forgery in previous revelations, mixed their words with God's words.2. Instead of this Quran has always ASSOCIATED believers with previous revelations rather DISSCOCIATING.3. Quran does not say that reject previous messages because they are corrupted- but Quran has asked believers to have EMAAN on those portion of revelations which were from GOD.Note: "Which portion was from God and which was not" - this subject is beyond the scope of this Q & A.

G. // if Allah is one then why it uses plural form?//

Do you have really doubt or just teasing? THE REAL PRAISE, THE REAL GLORY, THE REAL MAJESTY, THE REAL GREATNESS .. is for God and only GOD. Nothing can be compared with God. To show his glory, greatness, majesty "we" is used.

The interesting part is that - a muslim, a hindu, a christian and even an athiest knows that muslims believe and worship ONLY and ONLY one God. When a muslim says "Al rahman", "Al raheem", "Al kabeer".. etc then even a hindu understand that muslim is referring to one and the same Allah. But when a hindu brother refer to brahma, vishnu, shiva, sarswati, ram, krishna then even he knows that he is referring to completely different personalities